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Airport Home Appliance unbeatable price selection and people. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:45.040 Throughout history, we have attributed worth and sentiment to inanimate objects, 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.400 things that, when looked at out of context or without 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:53.080 the language to understand their worth, would otherwise appear completely insignificant. 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.320 At one end of the scale, it may be something 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.520 as small as a trinket, a memento of a happier time, 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.400 or something to remind you of somebody you love. At 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:06.440 the other end, it may be an idol that for 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.640 some might represent the material embodiment of nothing less than 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.960 a god, but to another might seem nothing more than 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.000 a strange looking doll. It is a trait we develop 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.720 from an early age, as explored by celebrated psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott. 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.320 During his early work as a pediatrician, Winnicott became fascinated 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.440 with the various blankets and toys that children, mainly aged 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.800 four to twelve months, would bring to his consultations. What 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.000 he discovered was that these items, rather than being mere 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.320 distractions or comfort aides, were actually serving a far greater purpose. 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.280 The objects, in fact, provided a bridge between the inner 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.880 world of the child and the external outside world, thus 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.079 beginning the transition of separation from the mother in order 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.800 to develop its own identity. In other words, even at 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.080 that early stage, we are already imbuing physical things with 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:04.000 our own unique sense of meaning. The branch of philosophy 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.640 known as phenomenology, as explored by Edmund Hussel and Martin Heidegger, 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.359 posits that all reality consists of objects and events as 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.840 they are perceived or understood in the human consciousness, and 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.960 not of anything independent of human consciousness. In its simplest form, 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.640 it explains why one person might look at their nation's 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.200 flag and feel pride and affection, while another looking at 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.440 the exact same thing, might identify it with far more 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:35.720 negative connotations. But what are those objects that seem not 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.440 to conform to the vagaries of the human conscious, objects 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.360 that some might say seem to have a power all 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:47.720 of their own. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard 0:03:47.760 --> 0:04:02.400 McClain Smith. June nineteen seventy one, the presenters of the 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:05.800 BBC children's show Blue Peter buried a time capsule into 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:10.000 the ground at BBC's television center in West London. Three 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.320 hundred miles away, in the small northern town of Hexham, 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.120 two young boys were digging up their own time capsule 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:20.320 of swords. What they found exactly has never been fully explained. 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.200 The discovery of the objects, now known as the Hexham Heads, 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.520 would set off a chain of extraordinary and strange events 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.640 that have never fully been accounted for. It is a 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:45.200 truly astounding mystery that remains to this day unexplained. It 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.279 began one afternoon, roughly half a mile from the town 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.120 center of Hexham, as two young boys were out playing 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.440 in their garden. The Robson family had only recently moved 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.880 and were still settling into their new home at number 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.960 three Red Avenue. Spring finally turned to summer, and with 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.200 the oldest daughter Wendy away on honeymoon in Scotland, the 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:07.919 Robsons took the opportunity to conduct a spring clean of 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.960 the property. Eleven year old Colin Robson and his younger 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:15.599 brother Leslie had volunteered to tidy up the garden, their mother, 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.599 Jenny watching from the kitchen as they set about tackling 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:23.599 the overgrown vegetation. At some point, Colin wandered to the 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.000 back of the garden and began pulling up the weeds 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.760 when he came across something very strange buried in the ground. 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.240 The object, spherical in shape and just a little smaller 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.360 than a tennis ball, was larger and different in texture 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.599 to the normal stones you might expect to find in 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:44.120 the area. Colin sensed immediately that there was something peculiar 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.880 about it, a feenie that was justified when, after clearing 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.599 the mud from the surface, he uncovered what looked like 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.800 a face carved into the stone. Colin called his brother 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.279 Leslie over to have a look. A short time later, 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.000 after some further digging, Lesli he found his own tennis 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.599 ball sized stone. Wiping the mud from the surface, sure enough, 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.799 he too found a face carved into the rock. After 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.679 giving the heads a proper clean, the boys proudly showed 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.719 of their discovery to the rest of the family. The 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.960 strange heads appeared to be made from a sandstone like material, 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.040 the faces seeming too distinct to have been made by 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:27.359 natural erosion. They had an appearance like two grotesque doll's heads. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.920 The first, one, known as the Boy, had hair etched 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.719 into the head, an open face with wide set eyes 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.400 and a long nose. The other had a far more 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.320 severe look and has been described as having a strong, 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.800 beaked nose and wild, bulging eyes. It would later be 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:48.920 known as the Witch. Excited by their find, the two 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.400 boys gave the heads pride of place on a shelf 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.599 in their living room and headed off to bed. The 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:59.480 next morning, however, something strange had occurred. The heads had moved, 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.600 having been positioned to face one way. The boys discovered 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:06.680 that they now seemed to be facing out the window 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:09.880 toward the spot where they had been buried, and things 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:14.480 only began to get stranger. Certain objects in the house 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.120 started to break with no reason. A bed belonging to 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.560 the youngest daughter was one evening showered with glass, forcing 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.440 her to move out of her room. Oldest daughter, Wendy, 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.040 returned from her honeymoon to find the family in a 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:32.040 heightened state of anxiety. Believing the boys to be playing tricks, 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:34.680 Wendy determined to put an end to the nonsense and 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.120 promptly hid the heads under the top end of her bed. 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.080 The following morning, they had moved again to the other side. 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.600 A few nights later, the Robsons were awoken by screams 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:52.960 coming from next door. The property was rented by their neighbors, 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:57.040 the Dodd family. That night, Nellie Dodd, the mother of 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.680 the family, had been staying in her children's bedroom to 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.080 come at her young daughter, Marie, who had been suffering 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.840 from an ear infection. After finally getting to sleep, she 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.160 was woken by her ten year old son, Trevor. He 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.440 told his mum that something or someone had been pressing 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:16.040 on his legs as he tried to sleep. Nellie managed 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:17.960 to calm her son and put him back to bed, 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:22.560 but sometime later, Marie was awoken by a noise. She 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.880 woke her mother, who immediately sat upright in bed, for 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.600 there in front of her stood a strange creature that 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.080 she later described as having the torso of a man 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:35.320 but the head of a ram. When they screamed in terror, 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.720 the creature was unmoved, but eventually turned out of the 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.840 room and disappeared down the stairs. Nellie was so traumatized 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.440 by the incidant that she applied to Hexham Counsel to 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:51.280 have the family relocated, a request that was granted shortly after. Meanwhile, 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.560 the Robsons continued to experience a number of strange phenomena. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.880 A mysterious glowing light had started appearing at night at 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.040 the end of the garden in the place that the 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:05.560 heads had been discovered. Later, an unusual flower grew up 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:14.719 from the same spot. Eager to put an end to 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.480 the strange occurrences, the Robsons took the heads to Hexham Abbey, 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.760 where they were later passed on to archeologists Roger Mikett 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.480 and David Smith of the Newcastle University Museum of Antiquities. 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.560 The two academics were unconcerned by the reported hauntings and 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.800 only too happy to take possession of the peculiar stone objects. 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.720 Mikeert was particularly infused by the discovery, believing the heads 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.480 to be of Celtic origin, and despite not being specialized 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.160 in this area, he knew just the person who could help. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.600 Doctor Anne Ross, a well known Celtic scholar from Southampton University, 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.120 was at the time best known for her book The 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.320 Pagan Celts and Pagan Celtic Britain. After being sent a 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.520 photo of the heads by Roger Miked, Doctor Ross confirmed 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.680 his hunch, agreeing that they were indeed Celtic in origin. 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.640 Eager to learn more, Ross requested the heads be sent 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:19.520 to her at Southampton to be analyzed. A few days later, 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:24.800 the heads arrived at doctor Ross's office. Opening the package, 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.720 doctor Ross was instantly gripped by a strange sensation. It 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.280 wasn't anything particular, just a very base sense of unease. Nonetheless, 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.200 due to a number of work constraints, doctor Ross had 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:38.760 little choice but to take the heads home to examine 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.160 them further, a decision she would soon come to regret. 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.080 Two nights later, doctor Ross awoke suddenly at two am 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.320 in a fit of terror. A deep chill was in 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.560 the air as Anne looked towards the door, where a tall, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.840 dark figure over six foot in height and appearing as 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.280 if to be made of shadow, was slipping out of 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.400 her room. In her confused state, the figure seemed to 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:08.920 doctor Ross to be part animal and part man, overwhelmed 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.120 by an irresistible force. Doctor Ross rose from her bed 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.720 and followed the strange creature from her room, tracing it 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.280 to the landing. She caught sight of it again, moving 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.600 towards the kitchen. Seeing it more clearly now, the upper 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.640 part of its body was unmistakably that of a wolf, 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.960 its back covered in black fur, while the lower half 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.400 seemed to be that of a man. Terrified, she ran 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:35.280 back to the bedroom and woke her husband, archeologist Richard Feacham. 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.880 Together they searched the house but found no sign of 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:43.760 the intruder. A few days later, doctor Ross and her 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.400 husband had been visiting friends in London. When they returned, 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.600 they were shocked to find their daughter, Berenice, deathly pale 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:55.360 and incapacitated with fear. Barely two hours before they had returned, 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.920 Berenice had come back from school to find something inhuman 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:02.960 standing on the stairs. It was the blackfurred creature returned again. 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.679 Startled by the girl, the creature had run at her, 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.960 vaulted over the banisters, and dropped down to the corridor below, 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:14.120 before vanishing in front of her eyes. Richard and Anne 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.360 tried their best to calm their daughter down and made 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.080 an immediate search of the house, but again found no 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:23.640 sign of the intruder. Unaware that the hauntings may have 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.160 been connected to the heads, doctor Ross shortly after received 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:31.719 the results of the composition analysis. The tests conducted by 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:35.120 her colleague, Professor Frank Hodson, failed to confirm the age 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:40.080 of the artifacts. However, after performing a visual and petrological analysis, 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.280 Hodson declared their heads to be made from sandstone with 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:47.320 hints of lime coating and some applied color pigments. The 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.680 results seemed to confirm doctor Ross's theory of the Celtic 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:55.840 origin of the heads. Back at home, doctor Ross began 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.160 to notice a cold presence in the house, arising at 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.040 random times throughout the day. On more than one occasion, 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:07.160 doors would burst open unaided. Other times, the family would 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.720 hear the familiar sound of something leaping from the banister 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:12.960 to the floor below, as if landing on its hind legs. 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.080 Are you always taking care of your family? Do you 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.240 often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.960 time to take care of yourself, to make time for 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.680 you you deserve it. TELEDOC gives you access to a 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.719 licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:36.000 best to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.520 speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.840 appointments are available seven days a week from seven am 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.880 to nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:51.520 maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.200 you might be struggling with a personal or family issue, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:59.880 teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.840 so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:07.920 For free. Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.200 Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:16.839 Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's t e la 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:26.600 d oc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. After conducting a 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:30.240 lecture on Celtic heads at Newcastle University, doctor Ross was 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.200 introduced to the Dodd family. Unlike Mitech and Smith, doctor 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.160 Ross was profoundly moved by the Dodd's story regarding the 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:41.080 strange part man, part animal creature they had witnessed, not 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.880 least because her family had been experiencing the very same thing. 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.920 It was clear to doctor Ross that the heads were cursed, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.200 believing that in all possibility. The Garden of three Red 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:56.920 Avenue had once been home to a Celtic shrine. Before long, 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.360 the strange tale of the heads was national news. Doctor 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.040 Ross insisting on their Celtic origin and attesting to the 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.120 peculiar hauntings that seemed to accompany them. She had even 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.560 gone as far as to compile a report of her theory, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.960 which had been due to be published in volume one 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:16.720 of the journal Archeologia Aliana. In her report, doctor Ross 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.760 calculated the heads to be around eighteen hundred years old 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.760 and that they were indicative of the Celtic cult of 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:27.760 the severed head. Renowned Greek and Celtic arts scholar Paul 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.520 Jakobstahl describes how the heads to the Celts was venerated 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.000 above all else, since the heads of the celt was 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.960 the soul, a symbol of divinity and the powers of 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:41.400 the other world. After battle, Celtic tribes were infamous for 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.880 decapitating their enemies, placing their heads on spikes to be 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.400 displayed on the outskirts of their settlements, or sometimes even 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.080 nailed to their doors. Although the strange events had yet 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.280 to be accounted for, it would seem at the very 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.680 least the heads had been granted a genuine historical context. 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:09.320 But then something extraordinary he happened. Shortly after doctor Ross 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.240 compiled her findings, a man contacted the Newcastle Evening Chronicle 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.400 claiming to a valuable information pertaining to the origins of 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:22.920 the mysterious Hexham heads. His name was De's Craigie, a 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.840 lorry driver and lifelong resident of Hexham. Craigie, it turned out, 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.200 was also a former resident of number three Reid Avenue. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.080 He claimed to know about the heads because he had 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:38.120 made them sixteen years previously, telling the Press, I made 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.520 the heads from bits of stone and mortar simply to 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:45.920 amuse my daughter Nancy des Craigie's admission was a surprise, 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.680 to say the least, and for Doctor Ross the sort 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:53.360 of revelation that could end a career. Undeterred, she published 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.520 her report in nineteen seventy three and demanded Craigy provide 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.640 proof of his claims, challenging him to make the heads again, 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.680 a challenge that Craigie was only too glad to take on. However, 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:08.040 having provided the press with examples of his handiwork, many 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.200 failed to see any significant resemblance to the original models, 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:17.000 casting doubt on the veracity of his claims. For doctor Ross, 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:19.399 her accounts of the events that took place at her 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.040 home in Southampton never wavered, nor did that of her 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.520 daughter and husband, and more to the point, the hauntings 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:31.040 had continued regardless. Convinced that the stones had brought something 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.560 evil into her home, Doctor Ross finally had them sent 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.560 back to the Newcastle Museum of Antiquities, at which point 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:42.840 the strange occurrences ceased, immediately saying herself, it was as 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:53.720 if a cloud had been lifted. The following years saw 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.360 the heads pass between a number of different parties. They 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.760 were retested again, this time by doctor Chiss Robson of 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:05.199 Newcastle University. His report offered a somewhat different result to 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.760 the Southampton analysis, concluding the material from which the heads 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:12.159 had been formed was in fact an artificial cement, a 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:17.240 material unlike any natural sandstone. Although the results cast doubt 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.240 on doctor Ross's theory, a precise date for the objects 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:25.200 remained tantalizingly out of reach. In nineteen seventy seven, the 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.560 heads passed into the possession of Don Robbins, a controversial 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.920 chemist whose book The Secret Language of the Stones posited 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:36.280 an extraordinary theory. It was his belief that ancient stone 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.160 circles such as Stonehenge or the Ring of broad Guard 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.679 on Orkney, had unusual magnetic energies attached to them, and 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.360 that the hexham heads made too, hold similar properties, affecting 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.560 anyone that came near them. It is a theory that 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.680 came to prominence in nineteen sixty one, having been first 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:58.040 proposed by archaeologist and Cambridge University graduate Thomas Charles Lethbridge. 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.359 After graduation, Ethbridge worked for thirty five years as keeper 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.040 of Anglo Saxon antiquities at the Cambridge University Museum of 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:10.720 Archeology and Ethnology. However, as his theories and methods became 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.400 more and more unorthodox, Lethbridge faced mounting criticism from many 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:18.119 of his peers. In nineteen fifty seven, Lethbridge left the 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.119 museum and turned his attention instead to researching paranormal phenomena. 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.400 Skeptical of the traditional understanding of ghosts, Lethbridge proposed an 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:32.159 explanation no less extraordinary. It was his belief that certain 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.480 minerals were capable of retaining information given off during a 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.520 particularly emotional or traumatic event. Information that could then be 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.000 replayed much like a cassette tape recording. The idea became 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.600 known as the stone tape theory. Could it be that 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.840 the hexam heads had retained some kind of ancient information 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:56.320 that was merely being replayed over and over again. In 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.440 nineteen fifty three, Harry Martindale, an eighteen year old heating engineer, 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.320 was working in the basement of Treasurer's House in York, 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.560 in the north of England. The house had been erected 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.399 in fifteen sixty two as the primary residence of the 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.080 Archbishop of York, but had since been taken over by 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.879 the National Trust in the nineteen thirties. In an effort 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.520 to modernize the building, Harry had been sent to begin 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:23.200 the process of installing a new central heating system. After 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:25.960 a few hours work, Harry became aware of a distant 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:30.960 noise that sounded like a trumpet. The fanfare grew louder until, 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.560 much to Harry's horror, ahead wearing a plumed helmet burst 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:36.760 from the wall, followed by the rest of the body, 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.760 along with a cart horse and what looked like nine 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:44.359 Roman soldiers. Curiously, all the apparitions had been cut off 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.200 at the knee. The terrified Harry fell from his ladder 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:50.959 and scrambled into the corner of the room to hide. 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.120 Harry was so shaken by the event that he required 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:58.000 two weeks off work to recover from the experience. Any 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.680 attempt he made to recount the story was met only 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.399 with derision. That was until it was discovered that not 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.159 only had a Roman road run through the exact spot 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:09.600 where the cellar was located, but that it would have 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.800 been placed fifteen inches lower than the cellar, which would 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.920 explain the missing lower legs. His description of the soldiers 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:19.399 was later found to be perfectly in keeping with what 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:23.440 would have been expected of soldiers from that time. Despite 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.879 regularly tellings of the event, Harry's story never changed, and 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:31.120 neither did he ever profit from it. Is it possible 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.760 that Harry had witnessed some sort of recurrence of a 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.639 past event played out from the very stone that the 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:42.000 Roman soldiers had walked over all those years ago. Although 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.720 the theory has been roundly dismissed in academic circles, it did, however, 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:48.960 lend itself to an incredible TV play broadcast on the 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.800 BBC in nineteen seventy two, written by Nigel Neil the 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.600 Stone Tape is a masterfully creepy combination of science fiction 0:21:56.640 --> 0:22:09.160 and horror that I can't recommend highly enough. So what then, 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:13.760 of the heads and the extraordinary half man, half animal visitations? 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.359 Explained by three separate families, neither with any knowledge of 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:22.160 each other's experiences. In the winter of nineteen oh four, 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:26.360 just outside the village of Allendale, something strange was brewing. 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.840 The village, located only a few miles from Hexham, lies 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.440 in the thick of the North Pennines, a sprawling mass 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:38.720 of rolling hills, dark browns and greens. One morning, as 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.560 a soft orange sun began to rise, a veil of 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:44.240 mist crept over the land. While out in the field, 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.000 a young farmer was inspecting his flock of sheep. The 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:50.320 farmer was surprised to find that at least two of 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:54.080 them were missing. After a quick search at the field, 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.159 he came across a distressing site. On the ground. Before 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:01.920 him were the shredded remains of two sheep carcasses, one 0:23:02.040 --> 0:23:05.080 having been stripped of its bowels, while the other had 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:09.480 been completely devoured, with only its head remaining. A later 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:12.680 inspection of the remaining flock revealed a number of contusions 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:17.159 and scrapes about their necks and legs. The farmer recognized 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:22.840 immediately the tell tale signs of a wolf. A few 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:27.159 days previously, Captain Bains, a local dignitary, had reported the 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:30.320 escape of a gray wolf that belonged to him. The 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:33.600 coincidence was quickly dismissed since the wolf in question was 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.280 only four and a half months old and incapable of 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:40.560 inflicting such damage. A hunting party of over one hundred 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:43.600 and fifty people was quickly assembled and duly sent out 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:47.120 in search of the mysterious beast. After days of searching, 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:49.920 no sign of the animal was found, and the incident 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:55.200 was forgotten. But then on Wednesday, December fourteenth, another local 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:57.600 farmer awoke to find a great number of his flock 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:00.320 had been slaughtered and left a rot in the fields. 0:24:00.920 --> 0:24:05.879 The wolf was back. The hunting party, now numbering two hundred, 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:08.840 resumed the search and continued throughout the winter to hunt 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.159 in vain for the creature. A renowned pack of hunting 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:14.679 dogs known as the Hayden Hounds were also put on 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:18.080 the trail, but seemed unable to find any scent. In 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:21.119 a fit of desperation, like something from a Hollywood movie. 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:23.919 A skilled hunter was hired to take down the wolf. 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:27.639 The cocky mister Briddick, who had spent many years in 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:31.320 India tracking and killing game, vowed to catch the animal through, 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:35.399 as he put it, scientific lines, but he too was 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:40.160 unable to find the culprit. Shortly after New Year's Day 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:43.280 nineteen o five, the corpse of a wolf was discovered 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:46.520 on a railway track some thirty miles from Hexham, its 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:51.000 body brutally torn in two by a train. The Wolf Committee, however, 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:53.600 were adamant that this animal could not have been the 0:24:53.640 --> 0:24:57.480 same responsible for slaughtering all those sheep. The real culprit 0:24:57.840 --> 0:25:01.480 was still at large. By the end of January, the 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:04.080 spate of attacks appeared to be over and the search 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:08.160 was eventually called off. Now known as the Allendale Wolf, 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:11.520 might this mysterious creature hold the key to the sightings 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:16.480 of doctor Anne Ross and the Dodd family. Don Robins, 0:25:16.520 --> 0:25:18.520 who had taken possession of the hexam heads in the 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:20.639 late seventies, is thought to have lent them to a 0:25:20.680 --> 0:25:23.880 man named Frank Hyde, who specialized in the ancient practice 0:25:23.920 --> 0:25:26.919 of dowsing. It was Don's hope that Frank might be 0:25:26.960 --> 0:25:29.840 able to determine once and for all whether these strange 0:25:29.920 --> 0:25:35.320 artifacts possessed any paranormal properties. But then Frank Hyde disappeared, 0:25:36.200 --> 0:25:39.800 As Robins later noted, Hyde seemed to have vanished as 0:25:39.840 --> 0:25:42.280